On Jun 15, 2020 at 4:54 AM, <David Mcbain> wrote:

Hello everyone
My name is David and I live in Australia
I have just joined the group, however, I have owned a Nova Hitch with encoders for about 5 years
I was hoping someone could give me advice on acquiring or making the control box to drive the motors (encoders) to get the auto tracking to work
I am aware that Charles has passed on and I fear that there will never be another mount like the Nova Hitch

Cheers

With respect you are a bit confused. The encoders seems not motors. They connect to a device known as a DSC digital setting circles to read out where you are looking in the sky.?

On Jun 15, 2020 at 4:54 AM, <David Mcbain> wrote:

Hello everyone
My name is David and I live in Australia
I have just joined the group, however, I have owned a Nova Hitch with encoders for about 5 years
I was hoping someone could give me advice on acquiring or making the control box to drive the motors (encoders) to get the auto tracking to work
I am aware that Charles has passed on and I fear that there will never be another mount like the Nova Hitch

Cheers

Thanks for clarifying Kevin

I suppose what I mean is some way to accurately control the onboard motors to allow the unit to track objects for visual observation

On 15 Jun 2020, 11:49 PM +1000, Kevin Wenker <winks147@...>, wrote:

With respect you are a bit confused. The encoders seems not motors. They connect to a device known as a DSC digital setting circles to read out where you are looking in the sky.?

On Jun 15, 2020 at 4:54 AM, <David Mcbain> wrote:

Hello everyone
My name is David and I live in Australia
I have just joined the group, however, I have owned a Nova Hitch with encoders for about 5 years
I was hoping someone could give me advice on acquiring or making the control box to drive the motors (encoders) to get the auto tracking to work
I am aware that Charles has passed on and I fear that there will never be another mount like the Nova Hitch

Cheers

That's my point - there are no onboard motors.

Kevin

On 6/15/2020 4:38 PM, Dave McBain (DMac) wrote:

Thanks for clarifying Kevin

I suppose what I mean is some way to accurately control the onboard motors to allow the unit to track objects for visual observation

On 15 Jun 2020, 11:49 PM +1000, Kevin Wenker <winks147@...>, wrote:

With respect you are a bit confused. The encoders seems not motors. They connect to a device known as a DSC digital setting circles to read out where you are looking in the sky.?

On Jun 15, 2020 at 4:54 AM, <David Mcbain> wrote:

Hello everyone
My name is David and I live in Australia
I have just joined the group, however, I have owned a Nova Hitch with encoders for about 5 years
I was hoping someone could give me advice on acquiring or making the control box to drive the motors (encoders) to get the auto tracking to work
I am aware that Charles has passed on and I fear that there will never be another mount like the Nova Hitch

Cheers

When I ordered the mount Charles said it had tracking motors. He was still working on the control box
I have included some photos

Thanks for taking an interest?

On 16 Jun 2020, 11:24 AM +1000, Kevin Wenker <winks147@...>, wrote:

That's my point - there are no onboard motors.

Kevin

On 6/15/2020 4:38 PM, Dave McBain (DMac) wrote:

Thanks for clarifying Kevin

I suppose what I mean is some way to accurately control the onboard motors to allow the unit to track objects for visual observation

On 15 Jun 2020, 11:49 PM +1000, Kevin Wenker <winks147@...>, wrote:

With respect you are a bit confused. The encoders seems not motors. They connect to a device known as a DSC digital setting circles to read out where you are looking in the sky.?

On Jun 15, 2020 at 4:54 AM, <David Mcbain> wrote:

Hello everyone
My name is David and I live in Australia
I have just joined the group, however, I have owned a Nova Hitch with encoders for about 5 years
I was hoping someone could give me advice on acquiring or making the control box to drive the motors (encoders) to get the auto tracking to work
I am aware that Charles has passed on and I fear that there will never be another mount like the Nova Hitch

Cheers

?Hi Dave,

I own a Nova Hitch myself, without the tracking. I love it as an alt/az mount.

I think only a few Nova Hitches with tracking units were ever completed.?

I think your best bet is to contact Charles' son, Jake.? Unfortunately, Jake has sort of disappeared a few years ago,

and is apparently not responding to inquiries.?

Checking my emails, I found some related posts that were posted to the group, appended below.?

Good luck!

Ron

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From Charles Riddell, Feb 5, 2018:

The outlook for the?Nova?Tracking?Control is even a bit better.? All of the parts have been paid for.? I just need to get the control boxes from the consultant.

From Jake Riddel, May 22 ,2018:

Also, there have been a couple emails about the?Nova?Tracking. I actually do think I have all the parts to ship add-on kits. But again, this is also a big time sink. So, similar story, but I think putting together a kit is maybe 1.5 hours (might be more, have to solder quite a few wires), and shipping will be less as its lighter and smaller than a full mount, so maybe $150 to ship a?tracking?unit? I'll have to put one together before I finalize this to see if my estimate is accurate.?

From Jake Riddel, Jun 12, 2018:

Nova?tracking.... I found out at least 1 mount shipped with all the motors and everything pre assembled. If there are more of these, I can just send you a?tracking?unit. I can start doing these more or less immediately.

From Barry Megdal, Jan 21, 2019:

?I?was the one that sold that mount on Astromart.? ?I had gotten the mount without the controller, and later Charles sent me a controller to try.? He trusted I could do the wiring, and it worked fine, but was a little touchy in terms of force adjustments needed.

-------

He did make a few ones with motors before he passed away, but not sure how he was planning to control them. I was thinking how cool these mounts would be with a go to feature. I am thinking the equatorial drive standard 4 would work well for the stepper system.?